CAPRI

Italy’s most famous island, Capri is a dramatic rugged
mountain soaring out of the sea at the tip of
the Sorrento peninsula. A haunt for
eccentric characters since antiquity (Roman Emperor Tiberius
had his villa of pleasures, the villa Jovis), Capri has been
the preferred retreat of artists, movie stars,
and other VIP’s in modern times. Scottish
writer Norman Douglas’s novel South Wind (1917) is part
homage to the island and part satire on its eclectic
inhabitants.

Getting Oriented
Capri extends east-west with its major town, Capri, on the
eastern half, and its second town – Anacapri – on the higher
western half. They are separated by the highest peak on the
island, Monte Solaro. From the town of Capri you can descend
to Marina Grande (the harbour with the ferry and hydrofoil
docks) on the southern shore.
Capri gets its name from the ancient Greek kapriae,
meaning island of the wild goats”. There is much that
you can do here on foot by taking the old footpaths which were
the only way to get around until very recently. They afford
unique views and quiet.

Capri town
This
picturesque town is the heart of life on the island, with
extensive shopping as well as numerous hotels – many of them
among the coast’s most glamorous – and a wide variety of
restaurants and clubs. Social life radiates from the famous
Piazzetta, a preferred spot for seeing and being seen.

Anacapri
Perched on the higher part of the island among hills and
vineyards.
Off the main square of this pleasant village you can take Via
San Michele, a picturesque street leading to Villa San
Michele, the home of the Swedish doctor and writer Axel Munthe,
which was built in the 19th century and adapted
from the ruins of a nearby villa. (the gardens are beautiful
here, and the views from the terrace are superb.)
Nearby is the church of San Michele, with
its beautiful majolica floor.

If you long for still greater heights and thrills, from Piazza
della Vittoria you can get a chairlift to the top of Monte
Solaro, Capri’s highest peak. The trip takes only 12 minutes
and the panorama from the top encompasses the whole stretch of
coast and sea, including Mount Vesuvius and the two gulfs,
Naples and Salerno.

Below Anacapri is the island’s most famous attraction, the
Grotta Azzurra (Blue Grotto). Known since antiquity, the
magical colors of the water and walls of this huge grotto are
indeed extraordinary.

Hiking:
From Capri’s cliffs you can feast your eyes
both on sea and land, with views stretching all the way over
the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius, and along the Gulf of
Salerno and the Amalfi Coast. One of the easiest paths is the
short hike from Capri to Marina Piccola: a series of steps and
a dirt path brings down to the village through cultivated
fields and gardens. Another interesting hike is the Scala
Fenicia (Fenician Staircase) which descends from Anacapri to
Capri: Built by the Greeks in the 8th century B.C.,
it was the only access to the sea or the village of Anacapri
until 1877, when the current road was built. The steep path is
basically a long staircase with 881 steps, along the slopes of
the mountain, rewarding the daring with superb views. You can
also climb Mount Solaro on a clearly marked path (or descend
it after taking the chairlift to the top).

Capri
Capri is an island of limestone
rock that represents the outermost tip of the mountain chain on the Sorrentine peninsula.
The coastline, whose dolomite cliffs fall right to the sea in many spots, is dotted with
countless caves and surrounded by reefs whose shapes suggest fantastic creations.
Mount Tiberio (334 m.), to the east, and Mount Solaro (589 m.) to the west are the two
main peaks on the island. Between these heights, on a saddle-shaped ridge connecting the
Marina Grande, ("Large Marina") - north end - and the Marina Piccola,
("Small Marina") to the south - is the town of Capri (138 m.). The other town,
Anacapri (286 m.), sits in the large, verdant plain to the west of Mount Solaro.
Capri contains a vast variety of plants and flowers, offering no fewer than 850
species and 130 varieties, despite its extremely small surface area, including some
rarities, such as the dwarf palm, which has survived in a number of inaccessible areas. In
terms of wildlife, many species of marine animals enrich the surrounding sea. On land,
there are many types of non-migratory birds, such as the large diomedei gulls, and there
are also reptiles, whose number includes the very rare lizard of the Faraglioni rocks.
The etymology of the name Capri must be traced back to the Greeks, the first colonists to
populate the island in recorded time. This means that "Capri" was not derived
from the Latin "Capreae" (goats), but rather the Greek "Kapros" (wild
boar).
The numerous fossil remains of that animal found on Capri confirm that it was
once the Island of the Wild Boars, and not the island of the Goats, as the Latin
derivation would seem to indicate. Inhabited since the paleolithic age, when it was still
attached to the mainland, the island later became Greek, and then Roman. After visiting
Capri in 29 BC, Caesar Augustus was so taken with the islandls beauty that he bought it
from the city of Naples, giving up the nearby island of Ischia - much larger - in return.
Legend has it that his successor, Tiberius, who lived there from 27 to 37 AD, built twelve
villas, dedicating them to the twelve gods of Olympus.
From the most magnificent of these dwellings, the "Villa Jovis", he ruled the
Roman Empire. Other emperors spent time in Capri, which was visited and inhabited by Roman
nobles up through the IVth century AD.
Returned to the ownership of the Dutchy of Naples, the island was raided by the Saracens
in the sixth and seventh centuries, and was dominated during various periods in the years
that followed by the Longobards, the Normans, the Angevins, the Aragonese and, finally,
the Spanish.
The island experienced a period of renewed good fortune in the 17th and 18th
centuries, in coincidence with the great political and artistic upsurgence of Naples, and
thanks to the existence of an active church diocese, as well as the privileges granted the
island, first by the Spanish and then by the Bourbons. Evidence of this golden period is
the stupendous architecture of the churches and convents built in the two towns.
Beginning in the second half of the 18th century, the island became a preferred
destination of the Bourbons, who went there to hunt quayle and simply to travel. Many of
the increasing number of visitors from the north who came to take in the magnificently
primitive nature of the south included the island in their travel plans and gave the world
its first images of Capri.
Unfortunately, their arrival also brought about the systematic plundering of the extensive
Roman ruins, preserved almost intact throughout the centuries. As a result, a tremendously
rich heritage was devastated and dispersed, so that today only a few traces remain. These
are found primarily in the digs that are resumed at periodic intervals.
Starting in the first half of the last century, in the wake of the discovery of The Blue
Grotto, or "Blue Cave", the flow of Italian and foreign tourists began, being
drawn to the island by the climate, the hospitality of the people and the colors and
magnetic atmosphere of the various sites. Writers,
painters, exiles, rich and eccentric visitors: from the end of the 1800's until the Second
World War, many chose the island as their year-round or seasonal residence, building
villas and contributing to the creation of the multi-facetted, multi-lingual, cosmopolitan
colony that made the name Capri famous and established the island's myth.

In 1900 the German magnate Krupp financed a street for travel by foot that joined
the Quisisana, where he lived, to the Marina Piccola.
Built with admirable skill by the engineer Emilio Mayer, it has been called "the
world's most beautiful road", thanks to the manner in which it hugs the rock and the
appropriate use of local construction materials .

The Gardens of Augustus

These belonged to the villa of Friedrich Alfred Krupp, son of the founder of the
great German steelworks, who took up residence in Capri towards the end of the last
century.
Built on the ruins of ancient Roman structures, the gardens were donated by Krupp to the
Town of Capri, which later named them for the Roman emperor. In a corner of the garden, a
statue of Lenin by the sculptor Manzu was erected to commemorate his stay on the island.

Villa San Michele - Axel Munthe
The villa was built for the Swedish physician and writer Axel Munthe,
author of the well-known novel The Story of San Michele". The construction involved
transforming a simple country home and an old chapel dedicated to San Michele and
originally built on exquisitely decorated ruins from the Augustan age that demonstrate the
presence on that spot of a sumptuous residence.
The style of the imposing structure is very free, set in the middle of a large, well
cared-for park. It is owned by the Swedish Munthe Foundation and is open to the public:
many of the founder's possessions, including rustic and antique furniture, as well as
countless archaeological artefacts, are preserved in a charming atmosphere.

Villa Jovis
The island's largest imperial villa, it was built for Tiberius at the
beginning of the Ist century AD and discovered in the 1700's under the Bourbon ruler
Charles.
The first exploration took place in 1827; the dig was expanded in 1932-35 by A. Maiuri who
brought to light much of the original structure, which covers 7,000 sq. meters; the
gardens of the villa must have originally covered the entire hill.
The structure, built to an uncommon height, consisted of a number of different floors
terraced along the natural slope of the land, with the difference from the highest to the
lowest point being 40 m.